Common Sense In Ohio

Desperate times make people stupid

2011-04-09T13:21:00.000-04:00

We hear that the economy is bad. We hear about wars. During these times is when we should be pulling friends and families together. Instead people are placing themselves as judge and executioner to prove some personal point. I looked at a Twitter account and here some of the first stories I found:

Libyan rebels fighting Gadhafi troops in Misrata say 8 oftheir fighters have been killed in clashes - Reuters
Up to 9 shot and a 19-year-old male killed when birthday party in Chester, Pa. turns violent - Philadelphia Daily News http://bit.ly/ggXsWXDutch shooting update: At least 6 dead; gunman ran through mall with automatic weapon before killing self -DutchNews.nl http://bit.ly/fBrbUH

I can understand people fighting for freedom. I can understand defending your homeland. But is with the arrogance of these people that believe they're purpose is to do something so horrific as too kill people indiscriminately? Is an argument really worth killing people at a birthday party?

If you feel the need to kill move away from people. There many places you can go to get away from your problems until you can deal with them. If you feel the need to bring a gun to birthday don't go. Gun rarely bring joy to party.

What is and isn't social media

2011-04-09T11:26:00.000-04:00

I the last few minutes I received a post on Facebook:

We all have at least 60 friends on Facebook; However when it comes to needing someone to talk to, How many will actually be there for you? I can guarantee you, not even 15 of your Facebook friends will like this status. If you would be there for me, set this as your status & see how many of us there for you!!!

My reply was:

I understand the sentiment of your post but you have remember this is an asynchronous media. IE when you post something I may not even see it for hours or days. During that time more people will add their messages. If you want true conversation I would say invite some people out to lunch or meet up at church. Facebook, Twitter and other social media just quick ways of starting a conversation. The real conversations happen in the real world.

Social media is about the moment: "I'm playing a game now I need" or "Here's my quick thought." While those thought snippets are getting posted so are twenty or thirty other thoughts by other people. Theres no way can keep up with every conversation.

The real question becomes how do you want to use your social media? If you want the maximum number of friends to play you RockYou/Zanga games then you loose intimacy. If you want conversation then only friend people that want the same thing as you. But don;t get upset if you friend people who don't want the same thing.

Can you pout some more?

2011-03-26T20:15:00.000-04:00

Francine Lawrence, president of the Toledo Federation of Teachers, has notified the Ohio Department of Education that the union intends to pull out of the Race to the Top Program, she said Tuesday night.

Ohio was awarded in August $400 million in the federal Race to the Top competition, a program aimed at reforming schools. The Toledo district's share is $10.8 million.

Source: ToledoBlade.com, published on 3/19/2011

The issue is that the Toledo Public Schools (TPS) academic programs have been floundering for nearly two decade. Together with budget shortfall from a shrinking population TPS has to make drastic changes and make them now. TPS is trying to negotiate those changes with local teacher's union but they're not budging.

Right now the TPS teacher union is waging a PR war against TPS to keep every single benifit they have negitiated over the last two decades. This is the latest tatic to force the school board the give in their demands. The problem is TPS doesn;t have the money and if Francine Lawrence and the Toledo teacher union drop this program the teachers loose even more and the school have even less to pay their teacher and maintain the facilities.

This a big game of chicken that Francine can't loose in. Why can't she loose? Simple: Her contract is set in stone and she will continue to earn her six figure salary until the day she retires. So really right now she's heading negotiations for her legacy as she nears retirement and not the good of the children.

Skirting the Laws in Pants

2010-07-07T21:02:00.000-04:00

Have you ever heard of earmarks? You ever hear of pork barrel spending? They're the same thing, it just every few years the media change the name of the practice so that most people don't realize what it means. Earmarks are when someone in political power take tax payers' money and give it to a company or other organization, usually for political favors.

Because of most of these organizations are for-profit and should be bringing in enough money that they should be paying for themselves and the earmarks (your money) is almost always some sort of payback. So lets make it really hard for for-profit companies to get this money and potential political favor? Some of our representative did. Of course some those same representative the next day went out and started giving money to non-profit companies. But wait, the non-profit companies were for-profit companies the day before.

The first person take advantage of this loophole was Ohio congress woman Marcy Kapter to Victoria Kurtz of the Great Lakes Research Center. Of course at the exact same address is Ms. Kurtz' sister's business TeamIST. Both have the same executive staff. So all of these ladies have went out of their way to funnel money to themselves. I wonder how much the TeamIST has contributed to Marcy's campaigns in the past? A better question is how much of the cash to the research center are going to go to Marcy's campaign?

Sunday afternoons lead to some of the stangest things

2009-02-08T21:14:00.004-05:00

We had some stuff happening at our house that would have let us go to one service but they got moved up and we missed church. So I puttered around the house and then ran so errands. While I was out I made the mistake of dropping by Lowes. While I spent $2.17 on some 1/2" PVC pipe and fittings.

So what did I with it when I got home: I turned it into a blowgun. I've been catching a lot of videos YouTube about how to build one and I saw the Mythbuster's special about a ninja dart gun. The video's I saw took needles and nails and turned them into darts. Since I like a small trailer and I don't want the neighbors thinking I'm total freak I came up with a non-lethal alternative: q-tips. You get quite a pop out of the cotton darts when they hit a door and wall with out trying.

After I convinced my lovely bride that I wasn't going to kill any of the pets, I made some chicken and cheese cascades to help sooth the evening. Also, somewhere in there we watched Mister MaGorium's Wonder Emporium. The movie is pretty good. Not Christian per say but it did give a decent message on dealing with death and continuing life.

Prototype Picture: Peppermint Pudding 1

2009-02-05T20:55:00.002-05:00

I figure its time to get back to making a web comic again so here's the first prototype image and main character: Peppermint "Pepper" Pudding. I hope to make a few more concepts next week and then actually start building the comic.

How NOT to drive in the snow

2009-01-28T13:11:00.004-05:00

With White Death Winter Storm Hank 2009 now past my area I wanted to say a few words on HOW NOT TO DRIVE IN THE SNOW:

Tailgating - Your SUV has great breaks and handles well on the snow, even when you're 6 inches from my bumper. This is called the 6 inch rule.
Don't Pass Responsibly - Take that icy lane next to mine and keep your bumper parallel to my mine for 5-10 minute before accelerating or decelerating. The occasional swerve towards me was a nice touch.
Decelerating - When you can't safely pass, don't decelerate to re-merge into slower traffic. See point 2.
Merging - When merging, remember the 6 inch rule. See point 1. Also, merging into spaces less then your car length is encouraged because the person that is now behind you will not mind suddenly slowing down on an icy road to give you the space you need for safe driving.
Peaking - When driving down a road feel free to swerve half in and out of your lane to see through the snow tunnel of death to decide if it is safe to pass.
Fiddling - Remember to always mess with the radio and TV/DVD combo unit while driving.

WTF were people thinking this morning? If the snow wasn't cover the chick's license plate I would have written down the number and personally went to he house and flattened all her tired the next time it even threaten to flurry. Some people just need they're driver's licence revoked.

New Word of the Day: econonarcissistic #tcot

2009-01-28T12:45:00.004-05:00

As I seem to every week or so, I'm coining a new word. Today's word is:

econonarcissism - The irrational action(s) taken by a rational individual when a personal finical event or series of events happens during a recession or depression cause by the individuals inability to see a positive outcome (See: hopelessness, finicalesteem, mammon).

Often timed these econonarcissistic actions will have a negative physical and mental effects on individual physically and emotionally close to the one experiencing the econonarcissism. See Great Depression (people jumping out of building), Ervin Lupoe (killed family after losing job), Marcus Schrenker (attepted to fake death to keep from paying debts.)

A little screen save I wrote: Spiral 1.0

2009-01-19T22:00:00.003-05:00

Hey all,

I wrote a basic screen saver over the weekend called Sprial. To install it you just unzip the file and copy the "spiral.scr" file into your "c:\windows" folder and then select it your desktop properties. I'm trying a new file sharing service because my standby doesn't seem to be working. So you can download it here.

Leave me comments on what you think of the screen save and the file service.

BTW: Here's a picture of one of the runs. Colors and designs vary depending how long you let it run:

My questions to ask a pastor

2009-01-17T08:11:00.008-05:00

If you follow me on Twitter you know I've narrowed my select down to a couple of churchs. I've queried my friends on which questions to ask as pastor or elder. One of them gave me a great resource with a list of questions that I could. Based on that list and suggestions from other I've started to put together my own list. Below is what I've come with so far. There maybe revisions, so I would check back in a couple of weeks:

Basic questions:

- What is the church's prefered bible? Why does use that bible over other bibles?

- Are there bad bibles, and why?

- Is the Bible a book that should be taken literally or should it be taken mostly metaphorically ?

- Who are your favorite Bible Teachers?

- Outside of the people mentioned in the bible, who are a few people who most influnced the Christian church?

- From those who are on the Radio or TV, who would be your favorites ?

- What 5 books would you recommend to someone who has just become a new believer in Jesus Christ ?

- Can a person ever loose their salvation?

- What role does Baptism play in the eternal salvation of a person ?

- If you went to Seminary, where did you go to Seminary ?

- What seminary would the pastor recommend, to someone who might be interested in studying to be a pastor ?

- Do you think that many Seminaries no longer teach Truth, and do not sufficiently equip pastors for the work of the ministry ? Why do you think this is the case ?

Intermediate Questions:

- What is the pastor's position on the Eucharist, and whether the teaching of the presence of the Body of Christ, is true or not?

- Are we in the end times ?

- Do you believe in ecumentalism (the merging of all religions into one)?

- Was Jesus Pre-existent before He came to Earth ?

- Did or does the Church replace Israel or is the Church grafted into Israel Spiritually ?

- Is the Jesus of the New Age the same Jesus as the one in the Bible ? IF they are different, what are the differences and how would one tell ?

- Is Everyone born with Original Sin ?

- Was Mary the mother of Jesus (Mary) either Sinless or born without Sin ?

- Is Satan a real spiritual being or an impersonal force ?

- Is Freemasonry something that the Bible approves of ?

- Are any Church Pastors, Elders or Deacons Freemasons at this church ?

- IF a person wanted to deeply study the Bible (inductive Bible study) on their own, what are the top 5 or 6 tools or books that should or could be used for this ?

- At what point does it become morally right for a church to split of or splinter from a denomination, if either the denomination or the leaders in it, are teaching material that is contrary to the Bible ?

- Is there any aspect of the Gay lifestyle that the Bible does not condemn ?

- Is being Gay something which Biblically should be understood as a personal choice or is it something which should be understood as a genetic fact ?

- What is the hiring policy of the church, in the matter of hiring anyone who is Gay, especially to be in a position of church leadership ?

- If the pastor could train people to be teachers or leaders and they were willing to devote 20 hrs a week for 3 months to learn this, what would he want to teach them ?

- Is the pastor or senior pastor willing to spend regular time each month with the teenagers of the church, hanging out, answering questions, about the church, theology, etc...

- What is the most controversial public stand that this pastor has taken ?

- What are the top 3 lessons that - as a pastor - he would advise someone else - to pay attention to, especially if they were to consider being a pastor today ?

- According to this pastor, is He and other pastors doing enough to teach young people...the doctrines and specifics of church history, biblical history, and how a person can grow into a mature spiritual life on their own ?

- Are their issues or questions that the Pastor fails to address or confront with teenagers, because of fear of men, or of the parents - that the parents do not want the pastor to address, because they are not where they are supposed to be spiritually themselves ?

- Explain the correlation between scripture (bible) memorization and the spiritual strength and understanding a person can have.

- If the nation state of Israel is being carved up into 2 right now, and if what is being given to the Palestinians is the ancient places of Galilee, Judea and Samaria, then does this mean that the Land no longer belongs - or should belong - to those who are Jewish ? If the land does not belong any longer to those who are Jewish, then does this mean that God was not serious when he Gave the Land to Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob ?

If the Land was given to Abraham, and yet Presdent Obama is doing all he can to give this land to the Arabs (called Palestinians), then - even though Obama "says" he supports Israel, does this mean that President Bush is working on the side of Almighty God, or against Him ?

- How can a person increase their spiritual discernment in these days, to be sure that they are not spiritually deceived ?

- IF you (the pastor) died today, and a funeral was held for you, then what would you want to be most remembered for, concerning your ministry and the long term impact you would like to have hoped - you would have had on those who sat under your ministry ?

- Are Pastors doing enough to teach the individuals and men in their congregations to learn to conquer fear, have courage, and learn to be mature spiritual leaders, in order to get their strength and significance from the Lord (and not their circumstances) ?

- If this Church Building had to close its doors tomorrow because of special circumstances, then how well would its members do, in being able to feed themselves directly from the Bible, and in being able to grow and develop their own Spiritual Walk?

- As the Pastor here, or one of the Pastors, do you believe that the present Church Structure leaves you free enough to teach and preach in the manner and way that you believe would best serve your highest calling in accordance with the Call of God upon your life ?

- Can you name Three Teachers on the Radio, TV or Cable, that you believe can lead me astray, and that you believe that I should stay away from, and instead learn from more Biblical teachers ?

- What kind of "personal discipleship program" does this church offer, either one-on-one or in a small group ?

- Would your (other) elders and long standing members be abale to answer most of these questions?

Things to say during a bailout

2008-12-30T12:31:00.003-05:00

The picture says it all.

No data, no help, no money

2008-12-23T06:32:00.001-05:00

If you remember a few weeks ago there was coordinated attack in Mumbai that killed at least 170 people. Now the Indian government in political play has decided to not give any of the terrorist data to Interpol. Mr Noble said, "To date, India's government has not authorised India's police agencies to enter any data relating to the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai into Interpol's databases.

You have made a 'sovereign choice'. Now the UK may have to make one of they're own when the 2009 budgets start in few days.

How to get the most out of #TCOT

2008-12-22T20:03:00.007-05:00

If you're not familiar with #tcot, here's the skinny. #tcot is a hash tag for 'Top Conservatives On Twitter.' A hash tag is either one or two words or a group of letters that represent a group or common interest. Other common hash tags include #bacon and #peta (People Eat Tasty Animals). #tcot is a group of conservative Americans who think that the Republican party has lost track of its core values.

So how do you get the most out of #TCOT?

Setup a Twitter account. I would recommend you setup on just for #TCOT because of step 3.
Go to the #TCOT hub website (http://www.topconservativesontwitter.org/) and look over the general announcements.
Request to be added to the #TCOT (http://www.topconservativesontwitter.org/index.php/get-added)
Invite everyone you see on there to become your friend. Currently it about 1,500 people which is why I said you may need a special Twitter account just for this.
Now follow the conversations going on by following them at either http://hashtags.org/tag/tcot or http://tweetchat.com/room/tcot
Post conservative topic or questions on Twitter with the hash tag #TCOT at the begining or the end of the conversation.
Start a blog. You can use a service like http://twitterfeed.com/ to post the title and link to your Twitter account. Make sure that include the hashtag #TCOT somewhere in the title.

Rules the road:

Be civil.
Be conservative and the values we portray.
Take flamewars to @private or d direct messages.
Don't post everything to #tcot. We don't need to know what Aunt Mable did at the family's Christmas party. That something should posted with #AuntMable
Hash tags are not case sensitive. Rule of thumb, is lowercase is better. UPPERCASE IS CONSIDERED SHOUTING.
If you use http://tweetchat.com/room/tcot, remember you're not seeing what someone is saying unless you're following them.

BTW: If you want to follow me on Twitter, you can find me at http://twitter.com/tekrat

Obama: Bush Not so bad

2008-12-22T17:26:00.002-05:00

Today I saw two stories cross over Reddit that made me smile alot.

1. Obama & Biden To Protect Bush Administration Criminals
http://tapurl.com/TMcU3M

2. Slot Machine VS Voting Machines
http://tapurl.com/p10Rhu

It appears that the members of Reddit, a linking and discussion website whose members are predominately liberal, are saying that Obama's election was invalid and the new administration is just as corrupt if not more so then the previous administration. Why else would the look the other way on 'crimes against humanity and the state.' The alternatives are that the Obama-ites are incompetent or Bush DIDN'T do all the horrendous thing they were accused of.

One of the posters said, "I'd challenge you [members of Reddit] to name a crime that the Bush administration is guilty of for which Obama and Biden, were not either directly involved, voted for or at very least complicit in."

#TCOT Gas Prices Will be Going Down Because of the Lack of an Auto Bailout

2008-12-12T12:39:00.004-05:00

Yeah, I was scratching my balding head when I read the original article as well. It turns out that people who invest in oil futures see the lack of an automotive bailout as a bad thing. The fear that almost every factory in the US will shut down and thus use less energy. Yes if the bail out had went through our country would be stuck with vehicles that use almost no gas. Less gas, less oil.

What really has my scalp itching is the fact that the Treasury Department now wants to lend funds to the auto industry. Isn't that illegal? If it isn't, can someone tell me how it isn't illegal for the Treasury to give out money without congressional approval?

Oh well, OPEC is about to cut off a lot of our oil soon anyway so we can look at prices rising.

#TCOT Tell your kids they can't eveything they want

2008-12-12T12:13:00.002-05:00

In a fit common sense Reuters interviewed Steve Rhode from the Myvesta Foundation where said "Be honest. It's not a matter of them getting a job to help pay the mortgage, but rather not asking for things all the time, or when you say we can't afford it, they understand why you're saying no."

Some children will not understand. Others will not like it. All will have to learn to deal. We can't wipe out the credit card every five minutes to get what we want. Congress is already doing that, and most, if not all of our GDP and spoken for by other countries. If don't say no now, another country will say no for us.

Bad Economy Keeps Bad Employees at Work, Making More Bad Employees

2008-12-12T11:56:00.002-05:00

Reuters has a piece on how a bad economy is making more people go to work then stay at home. That sounds great on the surface but think about it. If you have more bad employees in the office, people who don't want to be there, then how are they gonna act? Productivity will be down and they're gonna make your good employees feel like crap.

Ultimately businesses will have to face a decision: Keeps the grumpy employees so you at least have bodies filling the seats in emergencies, or thin the herd and pay a butt-load of overtime. Thinning the herd seems to be the path most employers are taking. They feel that they can reward a few good (happy) employees more then pay to for whole bunch of people, many of who loath being at work.

#TCOT 'Day without a gay' project falls flat

2008-12-11T06:14:00.002-05:00

If you haven't heard in California a gay rights group wanted to have a demonstration for gay rights Proposition 8. There idea: have anyone gay call off sick yesterday to prove how important gays and lesbians are in daily life. Unfortunately the whole thing fizzled.

Here are the given reason(s):

It costs to much

Yeap, that it. It wasn't persecution for there beliefs; it was the money. Wow, if you're that adamant in your beliefs that they couldn't afford a day off it kinda makes me wonder how strong your beliefs are.

Towards the beginning of the article the reporter talks to a man who wouldn't shut down his shop, even though he was gay. I can understand in these economic time why he wouldn't shut down his shop. But if his convictions are so strong, why not release you name and you place of business. At least you would get free publicity out it. But no, he doesn't and he lets his husband do all the talking for him.

#TCOT States with higher illegal aliens has poor quality emergency rooms

2008-12-10T17:46:00.003-05:00

If you look at the map in the middle of this article you can click through and see how the states rank in emergency room care. The one thing you'll notice is that the lowest emergency room quality can be found in the southern coastal regions.

While the article doesn't come out and say anything about the country of origins of the people using the emergency room as their personal doctors, it does have a section entitled, "Too many patients; too few resources." Within that section it says, "The organization said rising costs were forcing hospitals to close emergency departments at the same time that demand for their services was skyrocketing, thanks to a rise in the number of Americans who seek treatment in the emergency room because they have no health insurance."

So who are these people who don't have health insurance? For the most part illegal aliens. You can use a map that MSNBC put together showing where the uninsured are. Now overlay this map of the concentration of the concentrations of illegal aliens are and you see a disturbing trend.

Illegal aliens who don't have insurance or pay taxes don't pay for emergency room visits. They tend to wait until they're on death's door before going to an emergency room which drives up the costs even more.

#TCOT Team Obama lying again?

2008-12-10T08:08:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I posted that David Axelrod said that Obama has talk with Blagojevich, but no decisions have been made yet about Obama's replacement. Now Axelrod has says that he was mistaken in the interview. Why has it taken so long for him to come out to 'correct' his statement? If the Blagojevich scandal hadn't come out, would Axelrod's statement stood as is? Something a smelling worse every day.

#TCOT SF Gate is making excuses why Obama will not follow immigration promises

2008-12-09T22:42:00.003-05:00

San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate.com) has started blaming the economy for why President-elect Barack Obama may not deliver on his pledge to overhaul the nation's illegal aliens laws. You see the current logic is that when there's a bad economy, you can't anything else. Sounds more like CYA to me.

The only real plan the Democrats have for dealing with illegal aliens is to force employers to verify it employees as being legal. Of course there are laws and mechanisms on to the books to force to employers to check an employee's legal status. But hey, the government has screwed up several times already, why not again?

My question is why? Obama ran on a ticket of hope and change, yet he's already saying he's unable to make any effective in immigration. My questions is with all the recent scandals, will Obama make ANY effective changes.

Ohio Could Get More Jobs By Giving Out Less Money

2008-12-09T21:35:00.003-05:00

Right now most of Ohio, especially northwest Ohio can only get new businesses here one: pay them. Recently we just approved a $13 million dollar loan to help build a solar panel start up. This is on top of another $5 million dollar loan. This is a low interest loan that can be defaulted on the second the solar energy craze goes south, as in sending manufacturing to Mexico.

So how do we get more businesses to Ohio without paying them? Ohio need to go on a diet. We need to get ride of the sugary tax goodness and starchy carbs or red tape. We have some of the highest tax rates of the state and the highest unemployment. In Toledo the mayor can stop any building project for up to six months if he doesn't like your name (see the United Way project). It take 10 permits to get approvals to fix your windows and paint your building. And they wonder my we have all our problems?

Why would a business come here unless we make it easier and cheaper for businesses to come here? The only reason Perrysburg is getting the new businesses is because they did just what I suggested. Now if the rest of Ohio could get the hint and cut back.

#TCOT Obama may have had contact with Blagojevich

2008-12-09T18:54:00.003-05:00

Since the scandel errupted sentor Obama has commented to Rueters, "I had no contact with the governor or his office and so I was not aware of what was happening. But as I said it is a sad day for Illinois. Beyond that I don't think it's appropriate to comment."

Heres the gotcha, his advisor David Axelrod said on Fox Chicago Sunday (November 23, 2008) that Obama has talk with Blagojevich, but no decisions have been made yet. Ouch. It sounds like Obama's presidency is over before it begins.

Obama Statement on Blago Arrest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c5Cspu1KnE

Axelrod: Obama has talked to Blago about replacement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=konL35ur0Bo

#TCOT RE: What is the difference between conservatives and libertarians

2008-12-09T15:38:00.002-05:00

Wow, quick lunch time post has generated a ton of mostly positive comments on Twitter. Here are few of them:

ScottSanz: Nice analysis. I think that's one of my big hangups with more die-hard Conservatives. Not a big fan of policing others' morals.

joshbaltzell: If I were conservative I'd explain it this way: err on the side of god(s) in the social issues & people (not government) in fiscal.

apackof2: I agree with your blog most Libertarians see themselves as their own god Depending they also favor legalizing drug & prostitution

benhainline: Also libertarians aren't big on strong national defense. Their views on foreign policy differs greatly with conservatives #tcot

Thanks for the comments. Here a re couple of my

To ScottSanz, I have to say a 'conservative' who is policing someone else's morals is not a conservative, they would a facist. True conservatives and libertarians show their beliefs through thier daily actions and peaceful debate. The only time any kind of agressive action should be used is when there is a direct threat to life.

To benhainline, libertarians are huge on national defence, but only on US shores. The views on foreign policies could be arugued either way. But a general rule of thumb a forgeign policy in a libertarian republic would focus more on trade then on defense.

#TCOT What is the difference between conservatives and libertarians

2008-12-09T13:25:00.003-05:00

What is the difference between conservatives and libertarians? They both believe in freedom for all. So is the main differences? The answer is: religion.

Libertarians believe in a freedom created for by man. They belive has complete freedom over thier body to point of suicide and abortion. The only limiting factor of libertarians view on freedom is if it infringes on another individual's right to freedom. In other words, you can poison your own water, but don't posin my water.

The Western Conservative believe in a freedom created for by God. They're belief system is based around the Judeo-Christian values of the ten commandments. Actually it more like 14 commandments if you read it throughly (see below), but you get the idea. They believe the individual should always be striving to better themselves and they're family through becoming closer to God. Beyond the ten commandments charity for the weak and poor is also belived.

The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17 NKJV)

1 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.
3 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
5 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
6 “You shall not murder.
7 “You shall not commit adultery.
8 “You shall not steal.
9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10 “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.”

Take Back Toledo Hit the Ground Running!

2008-12-08T08:14:00.006-05:00

Take Back Toledo is a citizen initiative to get common sense and the voice of the people back into The city of Toledo's government. Since the announcement last week of the formation of this group the core members of this group have recieved several hit peices by the Toledo Blade, a local newspapper that thinks it own the town. 'Facts' in most of those article had to be retracted.

The first step that the members of TakeBackToledo.com is to remove the mayor. The mayor, who is know for doing stupid things like trying to put death by the airport because they won't hear anything, did a press release at 7:00 PM on a Sunday night saying saying he's going to have press event at 1:00 today (Monday).

Why 1:00? Simple: Non-governmental workers will have to return from they're lunches and would not be able to attend. Only supportive union and governmental workers will be able attend. Also, the mayor is know for showing up 45 minutes late so those who take a late lunch will have to return because the lunch hour will be over.

Perrysburg, Leave TARTA

2008-12-06T11:52:00.003-05:00

We will get to vote! Our town is paying $1.3 million dollars a year to busing service that gets use by a couple dozen people a day. That outrageous and I'm glad we finally get a vote on this.

TARTA has done nothing but cut services while increasing the price to ride on a bus. They have had the gall to say its cheaper to run big diesel bus all around the city carrying a couple of people then to use a half bus. Now smaller cars use less fuel, why not smaller buses?

Democrats Pay Off Auto Unions For '08 Elections

2008-12-06T11:26:00.002-05:00

Has it occurred to anyone why the US automakers need the money? The answer is simple: the automakers have been so afraid of bad press over recent year that they gave in to every demand the union had. This have brought them to the point that the automakes can no longer operate as a business.

So has does the paying off the automakers pay off the unions? The unions get they're power (read money) from, wait for it, autoworkers. If they don't have anyone paying union dues the cash reserves will dry up in about. However, unions are a very vindictive lot. Remember the mob connections of the Jimmy Hoffa?

Another example is locally in Toledo a judge legally kicked out a union of her court because they weren't doing they're jobs. So what happened? Her son's tires were slashed, she was slandered on a local tv station and daily paper, and she had brick thrown through a window.

How is this relevant to the original point of the unions being vindictive? In they're death throws of the cash drying up they would unleash a torrent of reprisals against everyone they gave money to in the last decade for not getting them the money they think they deserve. This kind of arrogant attitude would possibly crush over half our congress and the incoming president.

I personally think would be a great thing. Show us your corruption. We know it exists on both sides of the aisle. I think US politics needs this kind of cleaning. This kind of honesty we haven't seen in decade. Congress, just say no to the bail outs.

What is Common Sense in Ohio

2008-12-06T11:10:00.000-05:00

What is Common Sense in Ohio? It a restart of an older blog I use to have. My life is getting a little more stable so I figured I would start posting again. Its time common sense returns back to Ohio. If you don't believe me, do a case study on Toledo, Ohio compared to Perrysburg.

So look forward more commentary on the stories coming out Toledo, Ohio, and the nation.